From the atlas
Azienda Agricola Ca dei Frati
At A Glance
Producer: Ca' dei Frati (Azienda Agricola Ca' dei Frati) Appellation: Lugana DOC Location: Lugana di Sirmione, Lombardy, on the southern shore of Lake Garda Grape: Turbiana (Trebbiano di Lugana) Vineyards: Turbiana vines Generation: Dal Cero family, third generation Flagship: I Frati Lugana DOC
The Producer
A 1782 document describes "a house with a cellar located in Lugana in the Sermion district known as the place of the Friars." That document is where Ca' dei Frati gets its name, and where its traceable history begins. In 1939, Felice Dal Cero arrived from Montecchia di Crosara near Verona and moved into that same property in Lugana di Sirmione. Thirty years later, his son Pietro did something more consequential than farming: he helped write the legal framework that turned Lugana into a recognized DOC appellation, then bottled the first wine under the new designation.
Ca' dei Frati is one of the largest producers in Lugana, an appellation the family helped define. Pietro died in 2012; the estate is run today by his wife Santa Rosa and their three children, Igino, Gian Franco, and Anna Maria.
Place
Lugana DOC straddles the administrative border between Lombardy and Veneto, but Ca' dei Frati sits in Lombardy's Sirmione commune, at the southern tip of Lake Garda. The geography matters for the wine. Lake Garda is the largest lake in Italy, and its southern shore generates persistent thermal breezes that cool the vineyards through the growing season and slow ripening enough to preserve acidity in the grapes.
The soils here are heavy clay, a moraine deposit laid down by glacial retreat. Clay holds water well and warms slowly in spring, which pushes Turbiana toward later ripening and a longer growing arc. The combination of clay soils and lake breezes gives Lugana whites their characteristic freshness: citrus and almond on the nose, a mineral edge on the palate, and enough acidity to carry the wine through several years in bottle.
On the label, the appellation reads Lugana DOC for the whites and Rosso del Garda DOC for the estate's red. The DOC designation traces directly to Pietro Dal Cero's work in 1969.
Soil And Site
The vineyards around Lugana di Sirmione grow on glacial clay soils that drain poorly and compact under the summer heat. That texture forces Turbiana to send roots deep to find water and contributes to the grape's naturally thick skin and concentrated fruit character. The lake breezes off Garda prevent temperatures from climbing too high during the critical ripening window in August and September, which preserves the tartaric acidity that produces fresh, mineral white wines from Turbiana.
Story
Felice Dal Cero arrived in Lugana with no appellation to sell into and no legal name to put on a label. He farmed the clay slopes south of the lake for thirty years without a DOC to anchor his wines to a place. His son Pietro changed that. After thirty years working in the vineyard and the cellar, Pietro took part in the creation of the DOC in 1969, bottling his first wine with the label Lugana Casa dei Frati.
When Pietro died in 2012, the estate was already one of the largest landholders in a DOC his father had farmed without a name and that he had given one. Santa Rosa Dal Cero and her three children took over the running of the property and kept the range intact. The name on the bottle still translates the 1782 document: the house of the friars.
Vineyards And Cellar
Turbiana is a medium-sized, thick-skinned grape, and the estate's cellar work is built around what that skin thickness allows. Thick skins mean more phenolic material, more body, and better resistance to oxidation during fermentation. Ca' dei Frati uses that to build wines at three different ageing points from the same base grape.
I Frati Lugana is fermented and held on its lees in stainless steel for six months, then rested in bottle for a further two months before release. Lees contact adds texture and a faintly creamy roundness to the citrus and almond character without adding any oak or sweetness. I Frati Lugana is fresh and mineral, with notes of almonds and citrus fruits.
Brolettino is treated differently. Brolettino is vinified in stainless steel and barriques, then ages in barriques for ten months before three months of bottle rest. The oak adds weight and a slightly roasted, textured quality to the Turbiana fruit without overwhelming the grape's mineral core.
Privilegio di Famiglia takes the same Turbiana and holds it for five years in bottle before release, allowing the wine to move through a development arc that opens with white flowers and apricot, then shifts over time toward iodine, mineral, and candied fruit.
Wines
The range is anchored by three Lugana DOC whites built from the same Turbiana grape and the same clay-and-lake-breeze site, differentiated by cellar treatment and ageing time.
I Frati Lugana DOC is the estate's volume wine and its clearest statement of place: stainless steel, six months on lees, citrus-forward, mineral, with a clean acid line and the slightly nutty almond character Turbiana carries natively. Drink it young.
Brolettino Lugana DOC steps up in weight. Stainless and barrique fermentation, ten months of oak ageing, three months in bottle. The wine keeps the Turbiana mineral frame but adds a fuller texture on the mid-palate and a slightly richer, rounder finish. Suited to food.
I Frati Lugana Privilegio di Famiglia is a long-ageing reserve white, released after five years in bottle. Young examples show white flowers, balsamic lift, and fresh apricot. Aged examples shift toward iodine, mineral salt, warming spice, and candied fruit. This is the Turbiana grape pushed to its outer ageing limit.
Ronchedone Rosso del Garda DOC is the estate's red, a departure from the Turbiana-dominated range. The nose shows red fruit, crushed blueberries, balsamic and jam. On the palate, it is full and savoury with fine acidity and a clean, direct finish.
The estate also produces rosé, sparkling, and blended wines. Grapes across all lines are vinified separately.
In The Glass
I Frati Lugana opens with almond and citrus, the two cues most characteristic of Turbiana on Lugana's clay soils. The nose is direct and clean, without the complexity of barrel fermentation or extended ageing. In the mouth, the acidity is the first thing you notice: fresh and mouth-watering, keeping the palate lively and preventing the medium-bodied weight from feeling heavy. There is a mineral quality on the finish, faint and precise, that comes from the clay soils rather than any cellar addition.
Brolettino carries more weight. The barriques add a broadening texture across the mid-palate and a slightly toasty edge on the finish, but the Turbiana acidity stays underneath, keeping the wine from tipping into richness. Privilegio di Famiglia, when aged, develops a completely different character: mineral, saline, spiced, with the fruit moving into candied territory and the freshness softening into something more complex and layered.
Ronchedone is the red that sits outside the Turbiana frame: aromatic, fruit-driven, with balsamic lift and a firm, savoury palate that finishes cleanly.
A Bottle To Understand It
I Frati Lugana DOC is the first bottle. It is Turbiana grown on the clay soils of Lugana di Sirmione, fermented in stainless steel and held on its lees for six months, with no oak and no reserve ageing. That combination, grape character undisguised by wood, lees texture without richness, and Lugana's lake-cooled acidity kept intact, gives you the purest read on what this appellation and this grape can do. The almond and citrus on the nose are specific to Turbiana; the mineral finish comes from the clay; the clean, mouth-watering acidity comes from the lake breezes off Garda. One bottle, three geographic and viticultural causes, all legible in the glass.
Anecdote
In 1969, Pietro Dal Cero sat down with a group of Lugana growers to work through the paperwork that would give their appellation a legal name. His father Felice had farmed those clay slopes south of Lake Garda since 1939 with no DOC to attach to a label, selling wine from a property whose documented history ran back to 1782. Pietro spent months moving the designation through Italy's wine regulatory system. When the Lugana DOC came through, he went back to his cellar and bottled the first wine under the new label: Lugana Casa dei Frati. The name on that first bottle was the same name on the 1782 document, which had described the property as "the place of the Friars." Pietro had turned a historical footnote into a legal appellation and given his family's estate the name it had carried, without official recognition, for nearly two centuries.
Final Word
Ca' dei Frati is the producer most directly shaped by the history of Lugana as an appellation. The estate's range shows Turbiana across its full range of cellar treatments, from the unadorned lees-aged freshness of I Frati to the decade-capable complexity of Privilegio di Famiglia. Pietro Dal Cero helped create the Lugana DOC in 1969 and bottled the first DOC wine; the company is now run by his wife Santa Rosa and children Igino, Gian Franco, and Anna Maria.
Sources
- https://cadeifrati.it/en/
- https://cadeifrati.it/en/wines/ronchedone/
- https://cadeifrati.it/en/wines/i-frati-lugana-privilegio-di-famiglia/
- https://www.ethicawines.com/ca-dei-fratis-lugana-the-wine-and-region/